Connecticut Gubernatorial Candidate Joe Visconti to Tea Party Sellouts: I Stayed in Because Tom Foley Hasn’t Lived up to Being a Republican

Recently, Tea Party Republicans, who formerly supported him, came out and blasted Visconti for continuing in the race for the governor’s mansion, putting their support behind Republican establishment candidate Tom Foley. Well, Visconti is not taking it sitting down. He points out that these people claim to agree with his principles, but are abandoning them for a Republican establishment candidate, who supports Common Core, supports the current gun laws that restrict the people’s responsibility to keep and bear arms and will continue to engage in deficit spending.

Among those who have abandoned Visconti is Tanya Bachand, who nominated him for the Republican Party. “I love Joe dearly, he’s a very dear friend, ” Bachand said. “I admire him and respect him a lot, but I do wish he would just take a step back and look at the bigger picture.”

“If even 10 percent of [the electorate] votes for Joe, that could cost Foley the election and that means our Second Amendment issues and our Common Core issues get dealt a death blow,” she added.

Apparently, Visconti believes that people like Bachand aren’t seeing the big picture.

“My question to her would be, ‘you nominated me for the Republican Party, so was that just a feel good nomination knowing that Foley would most likely take the convention in the primary?'” Visconti told Freedomoutpost.com. “Was it just a sympathy nomination and a chance for Visconti to speak?”

“Tom Foley failed to live up to being a Republican,” said Visconti. “Just because he has a Republican backing, doesn’t mean he’s a Republican. He won’t seek to restore gun owner’s rights or repeal any part of the Connecticut gun laws.”

Visconti, however, will be strategically putting bills forward to repeal those laws. Tom Foley won’t even attempt it.

What’s going to happen in Connecticut if Foley is elected is that they are going to get a Democrat majority again in the House and Senate. So, whatever they want to propose, they will run it right by Foley. Foley didn’t fight it in 2010 when he lost to Malloy. He wouldn’t put up a fight over fraud in Bridgeport and he won’t put up a fight for repeal of the gun laws.

The gun issue is not the only big issue Foley is weak on. He also supports Common Core. In 2010, he was fully on board with Common Core. Recently, he has claimed that he would support Common Core only in schools that are under performing. However, as Visconti pointed out, if Common Core is allowed in Connecticut and not repealed, it will have to be in all of the schools.

Connecticut has a $1.4 billion deficit coming in 2015 and over the next three years it will be almost $4.8 billion. The Office of Fiscal Analysis provides the documentation for the $1.4 billion. While Governor Malloy’s administration has stated this. So, what’s the problem? Tom Foley has said he will not cut spending. He has used the term “flatline” spending. This means he will continue deficit spending, driving Connecticut further in debt.

Spending will increase by 7% each year on its own because of nearly $300 million built in for debt service and roughly $200 million for employee raises. So, Foley will continue spending and keep in mind that money has to come from somewhere, and where is that? It comes from the Connecticut taxpayer.

Foley is unwilling to ask the unions for a concession, saying “a deal is a deal.”

In all of this, Foley has said that there will be no tax increases (Anyone remember George H. W. Bush saying similar words?).

“Where is Tom Foley’s magic wand?” asked Visconti. “He’s painted himself in a corner. Malloy doesn’t want to talk about the deficit. Tom doesn’t want to talk about it because then he would have to talk about where he’s going to make cuts, but he doesn’t want to address that.”

“I stayed in the race because of Common Core, the Second Amendment and economics,” said Visconti. “Economics is his (Foley) strong suit, but it means he’s going to lie to the people and then they are going to hate his guts worse than anybody with his tax increases; and then the Republican brand will be destroyed for a lifetime in Connecticut.”

These are among the plethora of reasons why Visconti stayed in the race. “We don’t know the next mistake he’s going to make,” said Visconti. “He keeps making blunders upon blunders. He may make a mistake in debate and be unable to recover.”

Visconti said he was willing to step out of the race, but that Foley had demonstrated that he was not pushing a small government ideology.

The Connecticut gubernatorial candidate said that his words had been twisted with regards to repealing Connecticut gun laws. “I could put bills in to repeal. I could put incremental bills in to repeal. We would have people stand by the governor’s office and we would strategically do it.”

His plan would involve Democrats and deal with them from day one.

“The Tea Party stands for guns and against Common core and smaller government,” he added. “And those are the things I stand with them on and they now seem to want the opposite and say that I can’t win.”

I’ll just say, this is a problem that I have with the majority of people who call themselves conservative. Instead of voting their principles, they vote their fear in order to have a guy with an “R” on his jersey, who will do virtually the same thing as a guy with the “D” on his. Visconti can and will win if the Tea Party people voted their principles. They would vote for him and he would win big. He has the support of the black community, the Hispanic community and the Italian community, which makes up nearly 20% of the population of Connecticut. He has Democrats on board with him, as well as members of unions.

Visconti also cleared up the fact that he did make the moves to step out of the Republican primary, but that’s when Foley started presenting his positions, which were more big government positions. At that time, he was hearing on the streets from Democrats why they weren’t going to vote for Malloy and they wouldn’t be voting for Foley, but wanted him.

Visconti believes he can win and said that Malloy’s numbers will be down around 28-30%. “The democrats are jumping ship so fast right now, but they’re not jumping to Foley.

In a Quinnipiac poll from last week, 62% of likely voters that voted for Foley weren’t actually voting “for” him, but rather they were voting “against” Malloy. Part of the issue was that Visconti was not widely known. Visconti doesn’t want people just to vote against Malloy, but rather to vote for someone who holds the same ideals and principles they hold to. Imagine when he takes the stage in debates and actually presents ideas that Republicans and conservatives believe.

Visconti said that he’s actually pulled more votes from Democrats than Republicans. “I can’t believe it,” he said.

While many would say that would distinguish him as a liberal and such, the reality is that the gun issue and the Common Core issue is a threat that is weaved between Democrats and Republicans alike and that is why these people are supporting him.

“They’re watching their civilization unravel with Obama and Malloy, and they realize they need somebody fighting,” Visconti said.

He hopes to drive his numbers up to between 12-15 percent and that will create a wave of people moving towards him. That will also increase as he engages in debates as well.

While those that wrote the letter against Visconti said that he would not be a part of debates because he was polling under 10%, he assured us that he will be part of the debates.

“I will be in debate,” he said. “I’ve got the letter. Connecticut Public Television, in concert with The New London Day newspaper, will be televising a debate on October 16th… that’s live television, which is huge in Connecticut. I’m in that debate. There are two more we are working on right now.”

“We’re working on getting in most of the debates, but will probably be in half of them,” Visconti told us. “Hartford-Courant won’t let me in right now though.”

However, Visconti believes they can meet the criteria for that debate as well.

He’s received an invitation from Connecticut Broadcast Association, thought he is waiting to see if he meets the criteria, which is yet unknown. NBC and ABC also have debates for which he is seeking to be a part of.

I’d say that those who bear the mantle of Tea Party, but are in support of the establishment Republican Tom Foley are the ones doing the damage by voting their fears rather than their principles. They have abandoned a man that stands for them in support of a weak, spineless man, who is a Republican in name only. Haven’t you people had enough of RINOs? If so, perhaps you should consider backing a candidate that believes like you… you should back Visconti.

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